Qatari honey at Bu Saif apiaries

When you think of traveling to Qatar, It’s directly comes to your mind to visit the main sites such as Souq Waqif, or modern landmarks such as Museum of Islamic Art, or historical sites such as Al Zubarah fort. But what we didn’t think of or even imagine, that we are going to visit beekeeping farm in Al-Shahaniya area! We didn’t think at all about such place to visit in Qatar without our fabulous friend Shaima.

Shaima proposed the place after visiting Bu Saif café located in the famous Souq Waqif, what is interesting about this café, that they are using the local honey to prepare their sweets and drinks even the Donuts are made with honey instead of sugar it should a healthy Donuts! We have fast look to the the café and what they are providing for customers and headed directly to the farm to know more about beekeeping and apiary setup. The farm is located in Al Shahaniya, which is around 40 Km from capital Doha. Although we lost our way to the farm, but we know how to enjoy this part of adventure, we kept chatting and sharing our being lost stories in different travels.

After about one hour and a half, we finally arrived to the farm where Suresh was waiting for us. Suresh is working as a beekeeper along with Krishna and Satheesh. They are all from Kerala, India. Suresh brought us special white clothing to protect us from the bees. The tour started in theoretical way by explaining to us the steps of apiaries setup, what’s required to take care of the bees, and how to collect the honey. We saw the bees queen, and we know now how to differentiate between males and females, as Suresh said “you can see females are working all the time, but males are lazy setting all day long and their size is bigger” !!

Suresh allowed us to carry out one of the beehive slots after teaching us how to take it out slowly and carefully, it was very nice feeling but scary at the same time with the bee buzz surrounding you!. At the end we thank Suresh and his friends for their nice welcoming, and for answering all of our questions. Also we would like to thanks Khalid Alsuwaidi (Owner of Bu Saif Apiaries) for allowing us to get this unique experience in Qatar. Unfortunately we couldn’t meet the owner, as he was out of the country and didn’t try the products of Bu Saif Apiaries, but absolutely we are going to try the local Qatari honey next time we visit Qatar.

You can take a look to the interesting products of Bu Saif by visiting the Instagram account of Bu Saif Apiaries @bosaifhoney